In the field of diaper products such as disposal diapers (i.e. disposable diapers), conventionally, various kinds of products have been used, depending on sex or health and body conditions of wearers, purpose of use or the like. Therefore, in facilities where a large number of diaper products are used, such as hospitals or nursing homes for the aged, much labor and effort is required in operations for stock control of the diaper products or the like.
Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette Nos. 2002-150057 and 2003-58759 propose a technique for stock control and sales management in which a bar code is attached to a disposal diaper and the information (serial number and the like) on the disposal diaper is read out from the bar code.
In general, however, a disposal diaper is provided with elastic members over a wide range so as to be fitted well to the skin of a wearer, and with the elasticity of the elastic members, the disposal diaper has a contracted form as a whole. For this reason, in the case shown in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette Nos. 2002-150057 and 2003-58759 where a bar code is attached to a disposal diaper, there is a possibility that contraction of the disposal diaper may distort the notation of bar code or hide part of the bar code and the information can not be read out from the bar code.
There are some requests also for stock control or the like of auxiliary absorbent pads such as absorbent pads to be attached inside the disposal diapers, but since the auxiliary absorbent pad is also provided with elastic members over a wide range, there are some cases where the information can not be read out from the attached bar code.
On the other hand, since the disposal diaper is distributed through processes of manufacture, inspection, storage, shipment, sale and the like, being packaged by a package bag or the like, the bar code which is attached to the disposal diaper packaged by a package bag can not be read out. Though it is possible to attach a bar code to a package bag or a packing box, if many kinds of package bags or the like are used, it is necessary to place the package bags in the same direction so that the bar codes thereon should face this side in order to find a specified package bag or the like, and therefore it is hard to increase working efficiency of the above processes.
Further, there is a request for a management system which allows a proper and easy check on information on operation being performed in each of the above processes or the like, for individual disposal diapers, auxiliary absorbent pads or the like.